Business

10 places moonlighting entrepreneurs love to burn the midnight oil

Call it a side business, a second shift, or a night job. For entrepreneurs with a typical nine to five — whether that's as a student or a full-time employee — moonlighting is a challenge. Not only are moonlighters launching a startup after traditional work hours and often on little sleep, but they're also building a dream without a dedicated office space.

And they're not going away anytime soon. Moonlighters make up 27% of the 53 million Americans who freelance according to a recent study released by the Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk.

Working outside a typical office environment is exciting, but finding a location with solid Wi-Fi, plentiful outlets and a good vibe — plus food and coffee — isn't as easy as it sounds. We asked a few entrepreneurs to share their favorite tried-and-true moonlighting spaces and here's what they said:

1. Co-working spaces

For Asha, a 33-year-old entrepreneur who runs FoodLY during the day and acts as the publisher of NOURISHED Magazine at night, the price of a co-working space at Grind in New York City is more than justified. "It maximizes my day and creates a structure in the way I do the activities that I do," she says. "It essentially stretches the ability to make the most of my day."

And moonlighting packages at co-working spaces can be half as much as the daytime packages. "Putting a dollar value actually makes you more efficient because you know it's coming out of your pocket," she adds.

2. Free office space

Students or recent alumni of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill are lucky to have 1789 Venture Lab on campus. "I am running Royce Leather and completing my undergraduate studies concurrently," says entrepreneur Andrew Royce Bauer. "The space has a couch, technology, a game room, a bar and ample presentation spaces to work at all times of the night to make my fashion accessories business as successful as possible." And it's free. Check out deskcamping.com to find a free desk in London, New York or Berlin.

3. Whole Foods

Scott Dettman of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is busy working as a senior data scientist and PhD candidate during the day — and taking on a role as a new dad. At night, the 27-year-old can be found working on VoxDel, a platform that allows anyone to be a data scientist, at Whole Foods on North and Prospect.

The cafe tables, free Wi-Fi, endless pre-made food options, coffee, beer and free parking are a great fit for him. "For me and my team, whatever sort of thing we're working on or whatever we need we don't have to stray far," he says. It also means they don't have to take time-killing food and coffee breaks. "If we're there for several hours, people eat at different times and we never force people to order food or to not eat."

4. Campus

During the day, Timothy Peterson is a postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at Harvard. So when he transitions to his night job as co-founder of Onarbor, a publishing, broadcasting and Bitcoin monetization platform for digital works, he stays right where he is. "All I need is an Internet connection and a text editor," Peterson says. "Harvard — like most schools — has a much better internet connection than what I can get at home or in coffee shops."

5. Their day job

Entrepreneur Timmy Wahba doesn't have to leave his day job to start on his night job. "Everything is there that I could need," says Wahba, 29, who works as a director of strategic growth at the 24-hour co-working space Projective Space in Manhattan during the day. At night, he begins work on a Columbia University alumni-based angel fund called the Columbia Angels. "It's inspiring to work in. And even more inspiring when there's just a small handful of others burning the midnight oil. It's a bit of a bonding experience."

6. Another startup

For Seth Knapp, a 30-year-old business consultant by day, the small conference room in the office of another startup in Milwaukee has acted as a launch pad for his own startup, Eventkast. "It's not a big office as the other startup is still in early growth stage, so there's not really room to co-work," he says. "They leave the conference room unlocked for us at night."

7. Coffee shops

Many moonlighting entrepreneurs find luck at late-night coffee shops, and Black Hole Coffee Shop in Houston is one of those spaces. "The owners are extremely supportive of Houston's creative community," says Coert Voorhees, 40, who moonlighted at Black Hole when he started his ed-tech company, Grammaropolis. The shop has a funky student vibe as well as great coffee. "I often saw a number of fellow entrepreneurs there as well," he says.

The site Coffices.co can help you find coffee shops with Wi-Fi in your area.

8. The library

Some entrepreneurs need peace and quiet over hustle and bustle. Christian Sculthorp, 22, heads to the Toronto Reference Library for at least two hours each night after working at his marketing agency day job. He works on marketing and copywriting for his vaporizer ecommerce website, Vaped.ca, from the Yonge and Bloor location. "It's nice and quiet and there's a coffee shop attached that makes a mean Americano," Sculthorp says.

9. McDonald's

Indiana University college professor Yuri Cateldo, 34, runs a high-end bottled water company called IndigoH20 at night. Because he saves money by living with his parents, getting out of the house at night is a must. Where does he head in South Bend for free Wi-Fi? "My favorite place to moonlight is McDonald's," he says. "The only downside is late-at-night hunger when the smell of fries overpowers me and I have to go eat them."

10. Anywhere and everywhere

Advertising account executive Samantha Cole of Virginia Beach, Virginia, calls her moonlighting gig as founder of Samantha Cole Digital Labs her "side hustle." "My favorite place to moonlight is wherever I feel like being," the 27-year-old says. "I want to be based from a place that doesn't require you to separate work/life environments." Her second shift will soon become her first — she just put in her notice at her day job.

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